'Roger' dies at age 58
Man on bike known to many
By MICHELLE MONROE
Messenger Staff Writer
St. ALBANS - A fixture of the St. Albans community - known simply as Roger to many area people .. has died. Roger Boucher, 58, a man without a home best known for riding his bike around St. Albans City and Town, died of apparently natural causes Sunday morning, according to St. Albans Police Chief Gary Taylor. ' Boucher had gone to Franklin County Home Health for help, but staff there were unable to convince Boucher to go to the hospital for treatment for respiratory problems, explained Taylor. He reportedly died at home health at around 6:30 a.m. "He had not been feeling well, for a while," said
Taylor. Police are trying to notify Boucher's family in New York.
St. Albans Police Sgt. Ben Couture estimates Boucher had been living on St. Albans's streets for 15 or 16 years. "He lived under the interstate by Hannaford for a long time," said Taylor.
"He was almost a local icon."
The site referred to by . the police chief is the overpass about a halfmile from the head of the Missisquoi Valley Rail Trail in St. Albans, from which Boucher would often wave to passing hikers and bikers.
Boucher was a daily vistor to the st. Albans Free Library; where he had been staying longer in recent days. "He was kind of part of our little library family," said library director MaryPat Larrabee. Barbara Hamm, a long-time board member of. Martha's Kitchen, knew Boucher for many years. "He was a very honest person," she said. "He found, I don't know how many wallets. They were all returned to their owners."
Boucher never took anything from the wallets and refused all reward offers, she said. He was also known for helping drivers with disabled cars. Hamm recalled a young woman coming into Martha's Kitchen crying
because her car wouldn't start and she was late for work. Boucher, who had been resting his head on the table, stood and offered to help.
He quickly fixed the car, but refused the offered payment, said Hamm, One winter Martha's Kitchen volunteers purchased a coat for him, but he refused it. "He wouldn't take anything," she said. "He was very self-sufficient in his own way," said Larrabee. "He wouldn't even take food."
At the library, Boucher would offer to help as soon as he spotted a staff person moving boxes or getting out a ladder, said Larrabee. "He was always wonderful at the public library;" said longtime library trustee Sue Wade, adding that he was very polite, as well as helpful.
When a patron intent on getting more time on a computer followed her to her car, Boucher came out of the library and called to her to ask if she was OK, Larrabee said. "He was a nice person," Hamm added. "He knew so much about so many things."
According to Hamm, he was born on Long Island and has two sisters. "I don't know of anyone who disliked him," said Hamm. His death is "going to be a big void in the area."
Information is not yet available regarding funeral or memorial arrangements.
